


New Found Family

by rainsonata



Category: Elsword (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Arc Tracer - Freeform, Diabolic Esper - Freeform, M/M, Mastermind, Psychic Tracer - Freeform, Time Tracer - Freeform, lunatic psyker - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-14 11:00:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,135
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28794309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainsonata/pseuds/rainsonata
Summary: Sometimes, a family can be two single dads, their sons, and their two cats. The school knew Mastermind by first name for Arc’s bi-monthly trips to the principal’s office because of “boredom.” That changes when Arc makes a new friend.  MMLP Modern AU developed withblazingsnark, where MM and LP are single dads to AT and PT.
Relationships: Edward "Add" Grenore/Edward "Add" Grenore, Mastermind/Lunatic Psyker
Kudos: 1





	1. Play Date

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on tumblr. The rest of the series can be found [here](https://rainsonata.tumblr.com/tagged/modernmmlp).

Mastermind placed his morning coffee mug inside one of the cup holders close to the driving stick and took a bite out of a bagel before wrapping it in napkins and placing it in the other cup holder. He too cheerfully fiddled his hands at the steering wheel while waiting for Arc to get in. 

Arc grumbled as he took the lunch bag from Mastermind and climbed into the car, sticking his head out of the window as the car engine roared to life. His legs dangled from his seat and he closed his eyes as they backed out of the garage and onto the streets, car jerking to the side when Mastermind made a sharp turn too soon. A white backpack with purple outlines lay sandwiched between his legs, surely to smoosh the books and snacks packed inside if he wasn’t careful. He toyed with the cat keychain attached to one of the zippers when he opened his eyes to peek and saw that they were minutes away from school.

Mastermind commented at a stoplight and glanced to see the bulging backpack. “Are they already giving you lots of homework?”

He shook his head, “No, they’re books I borrowed from the library.” Arc scrunched up his eyebrows to mirror his father, “So I won’t be bored.” 

“Third grade might be different,” Mastermind said, but didn’t believe a single word of it. “You might make a friend.” The unimpressed look Arc gave him was telling that he didn’t believe it either. Phone calls home and parent-teacher meetings a few weeks into the year were enough evidence that not much has changed from the year before.

“It’s the same kids from last year,” Arc complained.

Mastermind sighed, already seeing where this was going. Already a preteen, Arc was too old for arranged playdates and was never enthusiastic for them when he was younger. He was more than aware that there weren’t a lot of options for Arc to make friends when they were already familiar with most of the children and their parents after years of sharing classes and teachers. There were exceptions of course, but if there were, he didn’t hear a word about it from Arc.

“If the teacher calls me in again this week-“

“She called because she didn’t like my writing,” Arc protested.

“You wrote that she liked to pick her fingers during exams,” Mastermind reminded him.

“How can I pay attention if she keeps doing that?”

“Arc,” Mastermind sighed.

“You can drop me there,” he pointed at the sidewalk when Mastermind drove into the parking lot crammed full of other parents dropping their children off. Arc grabbed his backpack and threw it on his back with lunch bag in hand, “Bye, Dad!”

Mastermind planted his face on the steering wheel for a few seconds and groaned. _Stupid, Masi_ , he scolded at himself at the failure to talk to Arc about making friends. Flashbacks of being told who he could befriend and locked in the house to do extra homework haunted him even as he looked up to drive his car out of the parking lot. He didn’t want Arc to go through that. What was he doing wrong? Arc was given more freedom on what to do, outside of academics and a few extracurriculars, and yet he never brought a friend home once. What if Arc became friendless like him?

He grabbed the coffee from the cup holder beside him to take a sip and inhaled the fragrance of the drink. Today was going to be another long day. 

* * *

Fiddling with his pencil for what felt like the millionth time that day, Arc looked down to his paper with a hunched back, the teacher’s voice droning in the background. When he looked around the classroom to see that half of his peers were hardly paying attention like he was, Arc leaned in his seat with a quiet sigh. This was so boring!

On his lap and underneath his desk was a book he brought with him to class. Every now and then, after checking to make sure no one was looking, he would scoot his chair back to read a few lines before looking up again and pretended to be interested in the lesson. His notebook was on his desk with some notes written down, but most of it was occupied by cats and cubes. Ever since Mastermind taught him how to draw cubes, he couldn’t stop drawing them. It was more fun than listening to his teacher talk about stuff he already knew. He tried playing tic tac toe with himself, but it wasn’t fun if his pretend opponent kept blocking all his moves with x’s.

Arc pulled his textbook out from his bag, something he should have done at the beginning of class, and flipped over to the page to glance at the math problems set before him. “What number?” He asked his neighbor with reluctance.

“Ten,” his classmate replied.

Arc thanked them and drew a line below his notes to mark his paper for the new math problem. It only took him a few seconds of adding them up and carrying the numbers over to get his answer. Was that all?

He went back to his book to read a few more sentences, but held his breath when it was the scene where the kids were caught in a misfire by the people chasing them. Turning his head around to see what his classmates were doing, Arc saw that most of them were still writing in their notebooks. He returned to the book to where the kids were trapped underneath a lake and there wasn’t much time to escape, the older character wasn’t going to make it…

“Did you already finish?”

“No, I’m only halfway through-“ Arc looked up to see the teacher standing over his shoulder. He slid the book underneath his desk, but knew she already saw it on his lap. Aw nuts.

“Meet me in the principal’s office after school,” she said quietly.

Luckily for him, this teacher was not one to cause a big scene. She didn’t raise her voice when she waited for Arc to hand her the book and tucked it under her arm. The teacher smiled, but he could tell she wasn’t pleased. Arc held his breath.

“All right, now who wants to solve the problem on the whiteboard?” The teacher asked.

Arc sighed, burying his face into his arms and squeaked when he accidentally knocked his pencil off his desk. Bending over to grab the rolling pencil, he stopped when he caught the stare of a student sitting next to him. What was he looking at?

Crossing the soccer field later that day at recess, Arc ran to the area furthest from the classrooms, the one close to the fenced gate facing the streets. He dodged a flying ball and scurried over to the big oak tree, sitting down happily with his legs crossed. Arc tried not to think too much about being called to the principal’s office after class. It didn’t bother him sitting with the principal – in fact, it was easier to talk to him than some of his peers - but he wasn’t looking forward to listening to the teacher and his dad talking about him.

“Hey, you’re the kid that always gets his book taken away in class!”

Arc looked up to see a boy running up to him, panting to catch his breath. With the wind blowing, his messy white hair made him resemble the fluffy clouds above them. 

“So?” Arc scowled at him for stating the obvious. Hugging the other book he brought with him to school, he turned his head in hopes of driving the other guy away with his display of disinterest. What did he want?

The boy grinned, “That’s the new book that came out, right? How far did you get?”

It took Arc a few seconds to realize that the boy wasn’t joking because he was jumping up and down in excitement. There was no way anyone could fake that kind of enthusiasm, not if they were this happy to be talking to him at a speed that was almost impossible to understand. 

“Arc, right?” The boy stuck out his hand and beamed, “My name’s Psych! Nice to meet you!”

“I knew that,” Arc lied. He couldn’t recall the boy’s name because he never had a class with him until this year, but Psych didn’t need to know that. “Why are you here?” He wanted to get through a few pages before the bell rang, where he would soon have to face his dad. 

“You’re always by yourself,” he whined. “So I thought I should join you!”

Arc look up to get a better look at his classmate. Dressed in a black hood and a pair of jeans, there was nothing extraordinary about him, but his ever-smiling face made the sun behind him pale in comparison. Oh yeah, they’ve been sitting next to each other all year. They even did a few in-class assignments together. How could he forget?

“Don’t you have something else to do?” Arc looked over at the children kicking the soccer ball around the field, watching it fly several yards over their heads before landing into the grass to be passed around.

He shrugged, “Not really.”

Now that Arc thought about it, he never recalled seeing Psych talk to a lot of people around him either. He sometimes saw Psych playing tetherball by himself at recess, but he thought the boy was waiting for someone.

“So did you finish reading it?” Psych asked him again.

“Not yet,” Arc admitted. “It’s a big book.”

Psych nodded and stage whispered, “I got the book yesterday, so don’t spoil it for me!” 

Arc rolled his eyes at how dramatic the boy was, but he didn’t complain.

“Want to go see my new Lego set?” he asked. “They have the characters from that book, and I didn’t open it yet.”

“Now?”

“It’s at home,” Psych shook his head. “I can show it to you if you come to my house?”

Arc shook his head, “Can’t.”

“Oh, right, principal’s office.” He laughed, “You go there a lot, don’t you?”

“You have no idea…”

“How about this weekend?” Psych laughed again. “Can’t be in the principal’s office on the weekends, right?”

“Sure,” Arc wasn’t sure if he should have taken Psych’s comment as an insult or not, but he didn’t dwell on it when the bell rang and groaned.

Psych took him by the arm and pulled - nah, dragged - him across the soccer field to line up at the classroom and waited for the teacher to open it for them. As they rushed to their desks to grab their bags, Psych dropped a paper ball at Arc’s desk and gave him a wink as he exited the room. When Arc unraveled the paper ball and smoothed it out with his hand, he found Psych’s address in messy handwriting.

Pride rose inside Arc’s stomach at the realization. He made a friend.

* * *

It was a quarter past two in the afternoon when Mastermind looked up at the sound of his name. For once, he wasn’t bombarded with assignments at work, so he dropped by the coffee shop across his workplace to grab something to drink before having to pick up Arc from school. It had been the barista calling his name, so Mastermind clicked his phone shut and walked up to grab his coffee.

“Heeeey! Long time no see!”

He turned to see Elesis behind the counter in her barista uniform with a bright expression. Resting her arm against the counter, she had her red hair tied into a high ponytail and winked at him.

Mastermind snorted. “We see each other every day.”

“Which is sadly not enough.” She feigned a teary look and ignored his rolled eyes. “Very tragic.”

Mastermind shook his head at the dramatic display and laughed. “I’m going to guess it’s slow business today.” He sometimes wondered why didn’t she go into theatrics when they were college students. She always seemed ready to dish out bizarre one liners and entertained him and their other friends with her antics. 

“Hey, don’t be hasty,” Elesis waved off his comment. “My shift ended with your drink.”

“As always.”

“That’s because you live here,” she teased.

“If only.” Mastermind laughed.

“So what is it today? No phone call from the school?” Elesis hopped over the counter and followed Mastermind to sit with him at the table closest to the window.

“Not yet.” Mastermind tried to smile, but it felt like a herculean effort. 

Her eyes softened. “I’m sure Arc’s okay.”

 _That’s not what the teachers tell me_ , Mastermind wanted to say, but he kept his mouth shut. He knew Arc wasn’t a bad child, but he was worried thinking about the kind of trouble his son may come into because of his mouth. Of course…that was partially his fault. From physical looks down to his favorite food, Arc inherited a lot from Mastermind, including his sharp tongue for better or worse. Usually it was for the worse when talking to people.

“He says he has no friends,” Mastermind ran through his roots with one hand. “His teacher asked if something was going on at home. She said he never talks to other children. I told her no, but what if I’m wrong? Maybe it was something I said or did wrong.”

“You’re not the only one taking care of Arc,” Elesis snapped at him. “What about me? Blade, Elsa, my husband?”

His phone vibrated in his pocket with irritation with a song he was too accustomed to playing in the background. Mastermind stared at his coffee cup for a split second before fumbling through his pockets. He almost dropped it when he found it and clumsily pressed to answer it.

His heart dropped in recognition of the phone number flashed across the screen, his breath hitched and his hands shook at the sound of the woman’s voice. Arc’s teacher greeted him on the other side with the same tiredness he had, but her voice remained restrained as she told him the news. No, he didn’t correct her again when she was trying to teach new material to the class. Arc was caught reading a book in class and was sitting in the principal’s office, waiting for Mastermind to pick him up.

“I understand,” Mastermind’s senses grew numb. There was a short pause on the phone before the teacher asked if he had any questions. “No, I’ll pick him up. Thank you.”

Elesis’s face was serious when he hung up the phone. “His teacher?” she asked.

Mastermind nodded, “It’s nothing serious.”

“Doesn’t look like it,” she said. “You look like you haven’t slept.”

“I’ll tell you more about later.” He stood up and gave Elesis an awkward wave with coffee in hand. “Thanks for the coffee.”

Mastermind turned to sprint out the door, but squeaked when he bumped into someone and tumbled backwards. His eyes widened when his coffee spilled over the person’s shirt and cursed to himself for his damn luck. He didn’t even get past the halfway mark for that drink! Rubbing the back of his head, Mastermind looked to see who it was. 

The person was a man with the face of a thug, or at least that’s what Mastermind thought. He wore a collared shirt like Mastermind did, so he must have come out of work too. He had his hand on his hip and scowled when Mastermind lowered his head to apologize. 

“Sorry,” Mastermind said sheepishly. “I can help you with that.” He backpedaled to the nearest table, flicked some napkins out of the dispenser, and held them out to the man.

The man grabbed the napkins and wiped the brown stains off his shirt (Who wore purple?). He patted it several times until it was all soaked up, then rolled the napkins into a ball and tossed it into the trash bin from across the room. 

“I can pay for your coffee,” Mastermind mumbled when he saw the man still glaring at him as if it was all his fault. Okay, maybe it was, but he wasn’t sure on what else to do or say in this sort of situation.

The stranger sighed, “Forget it, it’s just a shirt.” He turned to face Mastermind with brows relaxing to reveal the man was around the same age as him. The man’s hair stuck up on one side like the wind blew in one direction. 

“All right,” Mastermind wasn’t convinced, but let it slide. That person was a stranger after all, no need to make a big deal out of it. He opened the door to leave the coffee shop, but couldn’t stop from looking back to see the stranger again. The man’s hair was white.

* * *

Arc swung his legs in his chair, watching them dangle over the carpeted floor with a bored expression. His textbook was opened to a page, but he couldn’t concentrate long enough to remember what the question was. The eraser at the end of his pencil was almost all gone from erasing his writing for every time he misspelled a word. He ended up drawing the neighbor’s cat he ran into this morning, and was giving it stripes when the door to the principal’s office opened. 

Shifting in his seat with discomfort, he peeked from behind his book with worried eyes, half expecting the person to be a teacher or another parent. Arc squeaked when he saw it was Mastermind. He shuffled his stuff together and tried to make himself presentable as possible, textbooks stacked with one opened on his lap and papers lined up with his pencils. Arc gave Mastermind a cheery smile, but shrunk when he received dead eyes from him. Oh no…what did the teacher tell him?

His mind and heart raced at the worse scenarios he could imagine. Did the teacher say he talked back at her again? Or was it because he corrected her on a math problem? Could it be from the time he turned in a three-page book report when the rest of the kids wrote one page? Arc watched him walk into the office with the usual formal greeting, stuff adults did, but he noticed that Mastermind looked more tired than usual. 

“Mr. Grenore,” the principal greeted him. “We’re glad to see you could make it today.”

“You were lucky to catch me on a day with light workload.” Mastermind laughed, but it was a hollow one that didn’t suit him.

Arc mentally groaned at the petty talk between the adults. Why did they do this all the time? He tuned out their conversation to look at the reading passage he has been stuck on for the past minutes or so, but sometimes looked up to pretend he was paying attention.

“Must be tough with those assignments,” the principal said sagely.

Mastermind shrugged, “It’s something you get used to, but I managed.”

“Arc was caught reading in class again,” his teacher interrupted the small talk.

Arc almost pushed his book onto the floor when he rested his elbow on it. He caught the book from falling over and stopped himself from fussing when his pencil left a mark on the pages. Arc rubbed his eraser on the pages, careful that the pages didn’t crumble and hoped that it was enough to take out the marks. 

“Yes, as you told me on the phone,” Mastermind crossed his arms. “Is there anything else I need to know?”

“He keeps disturbing the class and correcting me last week,” she rambled. “I’m trying to teach the material to my class and he’s making them question me.”

“Well that’s the teacher’s job, isn’t it? If they ask you questions, then you should answer them so they can learn.” Mastermind looked down to ask Arc. “Did you finish your work before reading?”

Arc, who had his arms on the chair’s arm rest and looking up between the adults, was relieved to see his dad finally talk to him instead of the teacher. He meekly replied, “Yes.”

“I don’t see the problem then.” Mastermind closed his eyes. “If there’s nothing else to talk about, then we’ll be leaving.” He went to gather Arc’s books and said, “You ready?”

Arc threw his books and pencil into his bag and pulled the zipper to close his backpack, eager to grab Mastermind’s arm to pull him away from his teacher and the principal. Finally, they were leaving! 

When they sat in the car, he was at the front seat as always with Mastermind at the steering wheel, but why weren’t they starting the car? Arc hugged his backpack and looked at Mastermind to see that his dad wasn’t angry, or at least he wasn’t frowning or scolding him. Not yet. 

Mastermind tapped his finger on the steering wheel without looking at Arc, closing his eyes and breathing in to calm himself down. Arc blinked and looked down. There was no familiar coffee cup at the front of the car, was that why Mastermind was tired?

“Are you mad at me?” Arc broke the silence.

“No,” Mastermind said, without an ounce of anger in his voice. “Arc…this is the second time in the office this month. I know you finished your work, but this teacher isn’t as forgiving as last year’s.”

“She doesn’t let any of us have fun,” Arc grumbled, but low enough so that Mastermind couldn’t hear it. He said out loud, “Guess what, Dad? I made a friend today!”

He waited for a response from Mastermind, who straightened his back and turned to give Arc a wide-eyed look in disbelief. Arc grinned when his dad asked, “Who is it?”

“His name is Psych,” Arc said with excitement. “He invited me over this weekend to see his new toys. Can I go?”

Now that he earned Mastermind’s full attention, Arc bounced in his seat, waving the crumbled paper with the address to show to him as proof. The writing was messy, but he read it out to Mastermind and said, “He doesn’t live far from here.” 

Mastermind rubbed his forehead, “You’re still in trouble for being in the principal’s office.” He saw Arc’s smile waver and said, “But…I’ll let you go _only_ if you promise not to get in trouble again by the end of this week.”

He knew Mastermind was disappointed in him for the trouble he caused, and he did feel bad about it, but it was hard to control himself when it felt like his teacher and most of his classmates were ignoring him. But still, all he had to do was keep his mouth shut this week. That’s all it took. Arc crossed his fingers, promised, and prayed that this week would be over already. 

* * *

True to Arc’s promise, there were no phone calls from the school for the rest of the week, earning Mastermind more downtime, although the habit of checking his phone for every notification was tiring. Without the need to wake up for class or work on Saturday, it was a lazy morning where they could finish breakfast at a table for once. Mastermind smiled when Arc eagerly reminded him what day it was.

“Come on, dad!” Arc had on a t-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a backpack again overstuffed with books and toys. “Let’s go!”

“Psych’s house isn’t going to run away from us.” Mastermind chuckled at his son’s impatience.

Mastermind wondered if he was being too lenient with Arc. While he thought the reasons for his son landing in the principal’s office were stupid, he still had to be the responsible parent and at least remind Arc not to get in trouble. He thought he was being fair about it. Arc wasn’t allowed to touch the TV or even his books until he was done with homework and chores throughout the week and had to sleep earlier than usual. Mastermind made sure of that and kept an eye on him despite the complaints he received from Arc. Going by that reasoning, it wasn’t wrong for him to go play with a friend on the weekend, right? 

They had trouble finding Psych’s house because of the messy writing, with both trying to decipher the letters and a few occasions of Mastermind missing turns or taking the wrong street. Even after finding the right neighborhood, it took a few minutes of them searching for the house. Mastermind was ready to give up when he heard Arc shout.

“Dad, I found it!” Arc pointed at the address number lined down from the side of the house with happiness. It matched the address from the paper they were looking at for the past half hour or so. He waited for Mastermind to catch up to him before ringing the doorbell with anticipation.

Mastermind looked down at Arc to see that his son was bouncing on his feet. He hasn’t seen that bright eyed look from Arc since the first day of kindergarten, a sight that made him feel a mixture of happiness and sadness. What if it turned out that Psych didn’t like Arc or something happened that this would be the only time they meet up? His muscles tensed the more he thought about the possibilities. 

His son made a few friends in school, but they weren’t long lasting friendships like he would have hoped for. They were “invite all the classmates” scenarios, not mandatory, but might as well have been because parents did it to avoid making a child feel left behind. It felt like invitations out of pity and that didn’t sit well with Mastermind. They weren’t personal, and he had learned over the years that they didn’t mean much to the children themselves when they had their closer friends to be with. They usually ended with the children sticking to their close friends and leaving Arc sitting by himself. 

“They’re not answering,” Mastermind frowned. Were they at the wrong house? Could it be that Psych gave them the wrong address? It was autumn, so the driveway was covered in leaves when he went to see a car parked outside. He sneezed when a small leaf fell on his face and snorted.

“I’ll try again,” Arc refused to be discouraged and rang the door a couple of more time before knocking. The door opened midway through one of his knocks. Arc nearly fell over, but was caught by Mastermind.

Behind the door was a child that managed to be shorter than Arc, who was small for his age. His white hair was a mess and grinned when he saw Arc and waved. 

_That must be Psych_ , Mastermind thought when he noticed that the child was still in his pajamas – purple ones with cat imprints on them and a pair of cat slippers to match. 

“Who is it?” An older voice floated out of the house, and a man came to the door.

Mastermind did a backtrack at what he thought looked like an older version of Psych. This man looked like he had just rolled out of his bed. Like Psych, his white hair was in disarray, standing up all over the place, and he wore only a tank top and a pair of boxers. The man rubbed his eyes when he squinted at them. Mastermind’s breath grew short when he got a better look at the man’s face.

It was the guy from the coffee shop! 

Wait, he was Psych’s dad? Mastermind couldn’t take his eyes away from the man’s face, shocked to see how young he was from the typical parent. He couldn’t be more than a couple of years older than him. 

The man yawned, “You’re here early.”

Mastermind glanced at his cell phone’s clock and bit his lip from blurting out, _It’s 10:41 in the morning._

He gave Mastermind a tired expression as if to say, _Yeah, but it’s Saturday, dumbass,_ but acknowledged them with a nod and ushered them into the house, closing the door behind him.

As they walked in, Mastermind saw the living room was well lived in. Stacks of books sat at the coffee table with notebook paper laid out to reveal a child’s drawing that was hard to identify under the dim light. Occupying at the front of the room, taking up almost half of the wall was a big flat screen TV with the plastic tape still applied to the frames. A video game console behind the TV cabinet had video games lined up next to it. He didn’t miss the bookshelf sitting in the corner of the room, many of the books worn out from the binding when Mastermind examined them from afar. 

The man blinked as if he finally noticed the mess and said to Psych, “Why don’t you go change clothes while I show them where to sit?”

Mastermind stared at the sofa cushions on the floor and the blankets sprawled across the wooden floor, “Sit where?” 

Perhaps he was too tired to respond to the sarcasm, but the man went to grab the pillows, tossing them to the sofa and folding the blankets to place it in the storage box that doubled as the coffee table. Gathering the loose-leaf paper to form into a neat stack, he waved his hand, “Psych and I were up last night trying to finish a game.”

Had this man and his son slept in the living room? Mastermind was starting to wonder what kind of person let his son stay up late to game, but nodded in understanding. Once the area was cleared, which didn’t take too long, he and Arc sat on the sofa with the man sitting at the far end of it, opposite of where Mastermind was.

“Oh, I forgot to introduce myself,” the man gave him a lazy grin. “I’m Lusa, Psych’s dad. And you must be Arc!”

Arc, who was busy looking at the bookshelf crammed with books with interest, but jumped in his seat when realizing he was being talked to. He looked up to nod his head at Psyker and turned pink in embarrassment.

“He’s shy,” Mastermind excused his son. “He’s-“ 

“Let him talk,” Psyker stared at him. “He has a mouth, doesn’t he?”

Mastermind felt the heat traveling up his face and through his ears. Try as he might, he could not will himself to avoid his cheeks turning pink and looked away. Who was this guy to interrupt him like that? He was trying to justify Arc’s actions, wasn’t he? Or was that wrong and he should have let Arc speak for himself? Arc was eight years old after all, old enough to be trusted with many things. He didn’t have to look at Psyker to know that he was being judged. What was the other thinking?

“Hello,” Arc said in a quiet voice, gripping on the backpack straps, but made eye contact with Psyker with a small smile. 

“Hopefully it won’t take long for Psych to get ready,” Psyker said. “We didn’t think you would come here before noon.”

Mastermind nodded, recalling that the paper did say to meet up at around noon. Arc wanted to come earlier, but Mastermind also wanted to come along to see what kind of house Psych lived in.

“I’m here!” Psych popped from behind the sofa with his face in between Arc and Mastermind. The small child wore a t-shirt with a popular video game character that looked like a yellow rabbit (or was that a mouse?) and a pair of shorts going down to his knees. However, his hair remained spiky and stood up to make him appear taller. He went over to grab Arc by the arm and laughed, “Let’s play!”

“Not until you eat first,” Psyker chided lightly. He turned to Mastermind, “Masi, right? Join us for brunch.”

Mastermind looked at him in surprise at the sound of his own name being said by a stranger he had just met minutes ago. He and Arc had breakfast earlier, but he knew that wasn’t the right answer. Psych pouted on the side, but was happy when at the sound of him and Arc joining them for brunch. Mastermind felt guilt for ever considering that Psych would try to trick Arc into being friends. What was he thinking?

“How do you know my name?” Mastermind asked.

“You spilled your coffee on me,” Psyker said. “Your name was on the cup.” 

Of course.

Mastermind forced himself to stop blushing from embarrassment. It wouldn’t hurt to stay, right? He wanted to see how Arc would get along with Psych too. The look Psyker gave him was understanding, as if he knew his internal struggle, but that was ridiculous. He slowly nodded.

“Great!” Psyker grinned. “I’m going to go change. Be sure not to break anything while you’re here.” 

Mastermind couldn’t tell if this man was joking or not.

Arc thought it was funny and giggled at Psyker’s comment. Well, at least someone found this entertaining! Mastermind rolled his eyes and started to question if it was a good idea to stick around.

With Psyker gone, Psych and Arc were quick to start a conversation and were talking to each other, something about a new video game. He saw Psych’s animated eyes move around as he reenacted something from the game with exploding sound effects. His expression softened when Arc took out a book to explain something to Psych, eager to share with the smaller boy. Much to his surprise and relief, Psych shared the same enthusiasm, with both talking back and forth at a pace that was hard for Mastermind to keep up with.

When Psyker came back, it was in a t-shirt with the logo of a company and a pair of jeans. Like Psych, his hair was spiked up. Compared to Psyker, Mastermind felt like he overdressed with his collared shirt and vest. 

He saw Mastermind sitting by himself and approached him. “Hey, I know we didn’t have a good start today.”

 _No kidding,_ Mastermind thought about the spilled coffee or seeing Psyker half-dressed at the front door. 

“I feel bad about you losing your drink,” he scratched the back of his head, a peculiar behavior that was hard to ignore. “Want to grab coffee sometime?” 

_Really?_ He looked at Psyker for confirmation, but the other gave him a bright expression, lighting up when Mastermind took his invitation and nodded again. He tried not to dwell on the idea too much, his ears grew warm again and it was difficult for him to think straight. Mastermind pretended to be interested in joining his son and Psych in the kitchen to help set up the table while Psyker went to prepare the food. 

A coffee date didn’t sound too bad. 


	2. A Restless Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Being friends sometimes means standing outside of Psyker’s house in the dead hour of the night because your son accidentally fed a stray kitten chocolate. Psyker is suddenly entrusted with taking care of Arc and Mastermind needs a nap

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

It was still dark when Psyker woke up to his phone on his dresser, vibrating to a ringtone he had been hearing more often. Rolling to his side, he reached out to unhook the phone from the charging station (Dear gods, the sun wasn’t even out yet.) and slid his finger across to answer in a groggy voice. 

“Hello?”

“Lusa!” Mastermind’s voice was loud and clear. “Hey, I know it’s kind of early…”

“It’s four in the morning,” Psyker fought the desire to bury his face into a pillow, instead looking up at the ceiling. He had early morning schedules for work and exercise, but this was too early even for him. A nagging thought tailed at the back of his sleepy mind, “What’s up?” 

“Can I bring Arc over?” He sounded embarrassed, “I need someone to watch him while I’m out.”

“Did something happen?” Psyker grew suspicious with narrowed eyes, sitting up to straighten his back and glared at the phone, “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” Mastermind said with weakness. His voice was breathy, but he sounded okay, so Psyker didn’t question him further. “But I need to take a little guy to the hospital.”

“I’ll come over,” Psyker said and lowered his phone. “I can come back if Psych wakes up.” 

“You won’t have to…”

His hesitance made Psyker stop when he heard the sound of something closing shut from the other side of the call. Was that the car door? He opened his window, peeking out to see Mastermind stepping out of his car with Arc wrapped in blankets and wiping his eyes. Father and son caught Psyker’s eyes and gave a tired wave for a greeting. What the hell. They were standing on his lawn. 

They were at the door when Psyker opened to see the pair half asleep with red eyes like neither of them had much sleep. Mastermind prompted Arc into the house and led him over to where the sofa was in the living room before turning to face Psyker, who still processing what he saw. His friend and kid showed up at his house without warning and Mastermind was pale as a ghost like someone was dying. A quick gaze over the two found no signs of injury, but it was alarming to see either awake at this hour. 

“Where are you going?” Psyker asked as Mastermind tucked in Arc. “Are you hurt?”

“It’s not me,” he shook his head. “Arc found a stray kitten and we’ve been waiting for the mother, but she hasn’t returned. I saw it eat something last night and the vet told us to monitor, but it got worse this morning when Arc woke me up.” 

_A cat_ , Psyker mentally shook his head in disbelief. All that panic over a cat. The way Mastermind talked over the phone made him believe another family member or neighbor was hurt. If this was later in the day, he would have called out Mastermind for making him worried. 

“How long has it been?” Psyker asked. 

“A few hours at most,” Mastermind said. “We were planning on leaving him at the animal shelter, but it looks like he already made his decision.” He said without humor, a barren smile forming across his lips. 

“Where is it?”

“In the car,” he said. “I’m sorry for dropping on you like this. I’m worried about leaving Arc alone or taking me with him when it’s still early.”

“It’s fine,” Psyker crossed his arms and glared. “And stop apologizing! Of course, I’ll look after him.” 

He followed Mastermind to his car and saw something lying inside a bundle of quilts, a small white head sitting out of the pile with its eyes closed. Its body twitched when Psyker reached out to pet it, crying a weak mew. 

“Text me if anything comes up. I left Arc with his homework, snacks, toys, and some clothes in case I’m out longer.” Mastermind said when he stepped into the car to fasten his seatbelt. The kitten was placed in the back and secured in a baby car seat with the seat belt pulled over. 

_How about you?_ Psyker wanted to ask the man, who could barely keep up with his own words and stumbled over them in a rush. He wanted to tell Mastermind that things were going to be okay and he and Psych will keep Arc company, but a mixture of morning drowsiness and fear struck him from saying any of that. Did Mastermind say how old the cat was? It couldn’t have been older than a few weeks old judging by its size. He and Psych adopted Doomsday when he was a couple of months old, but he was unsure how things worked for younger kittens. 

Instead, he gestured for Mastermind to wait and ran back into the house to grab the first thing he saw on the kitchen counter, sprinting back out to toss it at the other. Mastermind caught it without thought and opened his hands to see a Kit-Kat bar. 

“Sugar for the drive,” Psyker said. 

“Thanks,” Mastermind opened the bar to chomp off a big piece, chewing it with a thoughtful expression. “This is the first time Arc and I took care of a pet outside of the occasional goldfish.” 

“It’s not your fault,” he was quick to shoot down whatever doubt Mastermind intended to say. “Get that cat to the nearest hospital and then we can talk about taking care of pets.”

“You make it sound like it belongs to us,” Mastermind chuckled. 

“It kind of does now that I’m involved with it,” he joked. “Is that everything?” 

Mastermind nodded and checked his watch for the time, scanning the back seat one more time to see the kitten wiggling inside the blankets before closing the doors and locking them shut. As he backed out from the driveway, Psyker stood at the lawn even after he drove off and left the neighborhood. By the time he returned back into the house, he sunk into the seat next to Arc and decided to catch up on sleep before the boys woke up. 

* * *

Morning arrived sooner than he thought it would. It felt like he didn’t sleep at all, a quick dreamless slumber that ended when the sun rose and he heard something crashing. Psyker’s eyes snapped opened, jumped off the chair, and scrambled over to see a child standing over the counter on his tiptoes to reach for a bowl. Lying on the tiled floor were plastic containers, more tumbling down before Psyker ran over to catch them and shoved them back into the shelves. 

The child looked embarrassed, “Sorry, Lusa.”

“Already up?” He grinned, easily reaching his hand to grab the bowl and handing it to the boy. 

Arc nodded and mumbled a thank you, taking it with searching eyes for the cereal before pouring the bowl, carefully pouring the milk to avoid spilling. The ten year old was still in his pajamas, purple ones with cat imprints on them and sat on a high stool at the counter.

Psyker was in the middle of checking the fridge for food when he was greeted by a loud meow. He looked down to witness Doomsday walking into the kitchen, looking up at him with expectation when it sat in front of his bowl. The gray cat meowed again when Psyker didn’t react to it as if saying, _Hey, what’s for breakfast?_

He laughed and reached down to ruffle the cat’s head, “Look who’s home today!”

 _Course, I am_ , Doomsday licked his paw, or at least that’s what Psyker pretended that was what he was saying. He laid on his stomach when Psyker opened the canned food, pupils growing bigger at the sight of breakfast 

“You think the cat will be okay?” Arc asked while watching Doomsday eat, “I mean our cat.”

“Your dad is doing everything he can to make sure it feel better,” Psyker wasn’t sure how to answer that question without giving the kid false hope. He noted the absence of Psych and made a mental note to check on him later. 

Arc accepted his answer, “Dad said he’ll call later, right?”

Psyker nodded, “But for now, you’ll have me and Psych to keep you company!” 

How much did Mastermind tell Arc? He didn’t look surprised to wake up in their house, but he was unusually quiet since Psyker found him. The kid was moving his food around the bowl, eating the cereal pieces individually and only stopping to sip the milk. His legs dangled from his seat and seemed more interested in Doomsday because his eyes was on the gray cat, who finished his meal and was already meowing for more. 

“If you eat more, you’re going to get fat.” Psyker teased the cat when it pawed his knee for more. Yellow eyes looked up at Psyker and let out a lazy yowl, rolling on his back to expose his belly as it to make a point. 

“Is Dad mad at me?” 

“Why would he be mad at you?” Psyker stopped rubbing Doomsday’s belly, guilt pangs in his heart when he saw Arc’s fearful expression. The kid kept looking at Doomsday like he was seeing a ghost, was this about the white kitten? 

“I didn’t mean to do it,” Arc whispered and choked on his words. “He ate the chocolate I dropped. When I made it open his mouth, it was already gone. I told Dad what happened and the vet told us to watch for signs, but now he’s sick because of me and he really liked that cat.” 

“Your dad was telling me this morning how brave you were to wake him up even when no one in the house was,” Psyker chose his words with care. “If you waited longer, the cat wouldn’t have made it when he dropped you off.” He noticed the heavy bags under Arc’s eyes and asked gently, “Did you get any sleep when the vet told you two to watch the cat?”

Arc shook his head, “I couldn’t sleep.” 

Psyker nodded, fair enough. 

“You and your dad did all you could,” Psyker said. “Psych is going to be awake in a bit, you want anything? Books? Games?” 

“I think I’m going to go back to sleep after this,” Arc rubbed his eyes, letting go of the tension in his shoulders and finished the last bit of his cereal. “How long will dad be out?”

“I don’t know,” Psyker said. “But I’ll tell you if he messages me. Tell you what, when you and Psych are up, let’s try this new online game I found. They just released these new classes I think you guys will like.” 

The game had been running for years, but something about the recent updates perked his interest when he was checking out games to try out with his son. He already had the game downloaded on the computer. It was a colorful game with lots of characters and seemed easy enough to play, although the new classes he mentioned to Arc struck him as eerie for reasons he couldn’t pinpoint. What was the game called? Add Sword, Grand Chase? Something like that. 

“I think I heard Psych talking about it.” Arc mused, but agreed, “Okay, I’ll try it.” 

“Awesome!” Psyker beamed, “If you need me for anything, I’ll be in the kitchen.” 

There was still concern written on his face, but the wrinkles were gone at least and he was smiling again, a good sign by all means. Psych was still asleep, so breakfast could wait. After cleaning up the dishes leftover from Arc and himself, he wiped down the countertop and made sure to place the cat food where Doomsday couldn’t reach it. When he left to brush his teeth, he caught Doomsday lying in front of the TV with Arc lying on the couch with his eyes closed. 

* * *

“Aw, come on!” Arc slammed his keyboard with frustration when he missed another combo with defeat. He didn’t have a laptop yet, so he was playing on the family computer with Psych playing against him on the other computer. 

“I win!’ Psych bounced in his seat.

“No fair!” Arc pouted, “You cornered me before I could move!” 

“Too bad,” he stuck out his tongue. “Wanna pvp again?”

“No,” the other moved his hands away from his keyboard and exited the sparring room. “You keep using the same combo against me.”

Before Psyker could debate if he should sort out their bickering, the phone he had been clutching on all day vibrated in his hand. Even after cleaning the kitchen from breakfast and running some errands around the house, he checked his phone every so often for messages or phone calls from Mastermind. It wasn’t until half past one did he see the text message. 

_> >Chocolate poisoning. Vet says he’ll need to stay overnight. _

His heart stopped beating, drawing in his breath and almost didn’t hear the boys still arguing in the background. Psyker barely texted back a message, having to go back and delete misspelled words that came out as a jumble of letters before hitting send. 

_> It’s okay? Arc told me the details and says he’s sorry. He’s been asking for you all day. You coming back? _

He watched the screen dim while waiting for Mastermind’s response before it lit up again, a longer message this time followed by frantic sentences. 

_> >Yeah, they said he’ll be released tomorrow to rest for a few days at home. Is Arc okay? What happened? I’m coming back in a bit after I grab something to eat. _

Psyker bit his lip and gave up trying to text back when the phone failed to pick up his words from moving his fingers too quick. This wasn’t something he wanted to carry through text messages when the idiot couldn’t hear his voice or that he had a dozen other things to say aside from this cat business. 

“Hey, Arc is fine.” Psyker was relieved when his call was picked up almost as soon as he pressed the call button. “He thinks it’s his fault for it getting the cat sick.” 

Mastermind’s voice was quiet and hushed, “I told him it was an accident and he didn’t mean it.”

He retained himself from saying, _Of course he does, he thinks of you highly and he doesn’t want to disappoint you._

“I want to talk to Arc,” Mastermind said. “Is he there?”

“Why don’t you come over for lunch?” Psyker suggested. “You plan on heading home today? I thought maybe Arc could stay a little longer.” 

He couldn’t see Mastermind, but he imagined the other nodding in agreement when he said, “That would be good for him. I guess I can drop by for a bite.” 

Psyker stifled a laugh when Mastermind walked into the house later that day, navigating through the clutter of books and toys on the floor. The other male nearly popped a vein when he walked by an arrangement of legos, wanting to avoid the death of stepping on one, something Psyker could sympathize with. He stubbed his foot more than once thanks to Psych sometimes forgetting to clean up after himself. 

“I thought you got lost!” Psyker said a little too cheerfully when he greeted Mastermind. Tired and irritated from lack of sleep and caffeine, but the concern over the cat and Arc from this morning were gone for the most part.

“Traffic was hell,” Mastermind grabbed a chair and sat behind the sofa with his head resting on the armrest. “This stupid driver nearly rammed into me.” 

“Alas, a typical Saturday afternoon.” Psyker said with a grin. “Lunch is in the kitchen, by the way. Want me to get it for you?”

“That would be great,” Mastermind glanced around the house. “Where are the kids?”

“In Psych’s room trying out a new game,” he went to grabbed a sandwich from the fridge and slide the plate over to Mastermind. “You want pickles with that?”

Watching Mastermind eat was always interesting to Psyker. Always starting from a corner, he would nibble through the crust before taking bigger bites into the middle, but careful not to spill out the food even if it was something like a sandwich. Today however, Mastermind was ravenous and ate through the whole thing in minutes, only pausing to gulp down water to make sure he wasn’t choking. Did he forget to eat while he was out again? 

“I’m glad you’re back in one piece,” Psyker sighed. 

“The cat is sick, not me.” He rolled his eyes. “Things were looking bad, but I think the cat will be fine. Arc’s going to be happy when I tell him.” 

“You want to talk to him?” Psyker said, “I’ll take care of the dishes.” 

Mastermind gave him a grateful look and left the dishes in the sink for him to take care. He watched the other walk down the hallway to where Psych’s room was. When he was done washing the dishes, he saw father and son talking amongst themselves in the living room, too quiet for him to catch what they were saying. Arc was showing a picture he drew to Mastermind, the way his face lit up reminded him of Psych. Mastermind was still holding onto the picture when he slipped back into the kitchen with the boys moving back the living room to clean up the mess when Psyker came out to remind them. 

“You wouldn’t want Masi to fall over them and break his back, would you?” Psyker lightly chided them when he pointed at the mess. 

“Dad…” Psych whined, but Arc cackled. 

“I’m not fragile,” Mastermind feigned annoyance, but a smile slipped through. The way he draped himself over the couch with his chin resting on his crossed arms reminded him of a cat. He looked up at Psyker in confusion when the other laughed at the similarities. “What’s so funny?” 

“Your hair’s a mess,” he teased Mastermind. “You look like Doomsday.” 

Mastermind snorted being compared to the gray cat, who was short furred, but then remembered the one time Psyker gave it bath and turned its fur into a little mohawk before cackling and sending pictures to him. Nonetheless, he self consciously patted his hair down and used his phone camera as a mirror to look at himself. 

“Do you and Arc want to stay over for dinner? I can order pizza.”

It was shockingly easy for Psyker to ask this question without thinking twice. He figured why not when Mastermind and Arc were already here and it was getting late. The kids were wrapping up on cleanup, chattering away with something that sounded like a debate between video game characters. Mastermind was flipping through his emails on his phone and only looked up when Psyker made the offer. 

Mastermind rubbed his temples, “Fine, but let me choose the toppings this time.”

“Of course,” he beamed, giving Mastermind a sly smile. “Don’t forget I like pineapple.” 

Mastermind groaned, “Lusa, that’s disgusting.”

“But it’s sweet,” Psyker sang. 

“And sour,” he scrunched up his face. 

“Like you.”

“Lusa,” Mastermind looked at him with exasperation. 

“Masi.” 

He bumped his fist up in victory when Mastermind planted his face into the couch in defeat, but not before dialing the pizza place to place their order. The pizza’s aroma was quick to herd in the kids and the adults when the doorbell rang, Arc and Psych fighting over the paper plates and Mastermind pulling out his card while Lunatic Psyker searched for a place to put the pizza without Doomsday getting to it. Amongst the chaos and liveliness of fighting for a bite to eat, it wasn’t the first time Psyker thought he wished he invited Mastermind and Arc over more. 

* * *

Psyker woke up to the sound of scratching from the back of the house. Cursing at the familiar sound he once thought belonged to ghosts, he found Doomsday meowing at him and pawing the glass door leading to the backyard. He slid the door open and watched the feline run off into the darkness. He was going to get anxious later that day about Doomsday not returning home, but he was too tired to be concerned about that when he walked back into the house. 

“Lusa?” 

He spun around to see who it was and grasped his hand over his chest in the sudden sound of their voice. Gods, that scared him! Having white hair and a pale complexion made him thought Mastermind was a ghost. 

“Sorry for waking you up.” A wave of deja vu hit him of interacting with his friend at an ungodly hour yet again. Was this becoming a norm for them? 

“What time is it?” Mastermind pulled out his phone to read the numbers, “Two?”

“You were out since nine,” Psyker said. As soon as they finished their dinner of a strange combination of pizza toppings that looked like a rainbow, Mastermind collapsed on the chair and slept. 

“I was supposed to take Arc home after dinner,” Mastermind bemoaned. “I thought it was going to be a quick nap.”

“I told Arc not to wake you up,” Psyker said. “You were out all day, so I thought you needed the sleep.” Arc’s sleeping bag was still here from last time, so it’s just another sleepover for the kids. They fell asleep not too long after Mastermind after he pulled out a cartoon movie for them. It was a movie that was out the year before, something about robots and superheroes. 

“But I’m here too,” Mastermind said. 

“Eh, we already live at each other’s houses.” Psyker waved it off and joked. “Want to merge our houses?” 

“Ha,” he snorted. “Only if you do the taxes for me.” 

Psyker grinned, “And you do the cooking?” 

“You don’t like my casseroles,” Mastermind rolled his eyes. 

“Only because you use green bell peppers,” he teased him. 

Mastermind snorted and played with a loose strand of his hair, twisting the ends until it tangled around the curls. For the first time that day, Mastermind had a genuine smile that stood out under the dim lights. Had this been him two years ago when they just met, he would have complained about waking up in disoriented and in a house of another person’s, but he looked comfortable with himself. 

Mastermind walked back to the living room where the boys were asleep in sleeping bags on the carpeted portion of the floor with only a bit of their head sticking out. Arc was easy to spot, clinging to a pillow he borrowed from Psych. Unsure on what to do, Mastermind awkwardly stood in between the chair where he passed out and where Arc was. Psyker saw the man holding a mental debate and decided to save him from his dilemma. 

“Stay,” Psyker walked over to place a hand on Mastermind’s shoulder. “Feel free to use the guest room if you want. I have a spare toothbrush if you need it.” 

It took Mastermind what felt like minutes to register what Psyker said and opened his mouth, only to close it shut again and gave a tiny nod in understanding. He gave Psyker a grateful look when offered a toothbrush and left to brush his teeth. When he came back, he saw Psyker sitting in the chair with a worn out expression. Psyker thought he was gone until he cleared his throat. 

“Thanks for taking care of Arc for me,” Mastermind said. “I don’t know what I would have done without you. I’m glad he likes you enough to talk to you too when I’m not there.” 

“Hey, that’s what friends do,” Psyker replied. It went unsaid that he was happy that Arc was comfortable with him too. Not too long ago did Arc shyly let Psych do most of the talking to Psyker if he needed anything. “I know you would have done the same for me if I needed you to look after Psych.”

“Friends?” Mastermind repeated the words as if he couldn’t believe it. “Yeah… Psych is a good kid.” The gentle smile made Psyker’s heart stop for a moment, one that wasn’t directed to anyone, but he was glad the lights were too dim for Mastermind to see his face. “What’s a good name for a white cat?”

“Hm? Thinking of a name now?” Psyker was amused, “I thought you weren’t planning on keeping it.” 

“No, but I spent so much money on that operation that he might as well be ours.” Mastermind growled. “Not even a month old and he’s already a brat.” 

“Fair enough,” he laughed. “Doomsday got into trouble a lot when he was a kitten too.”

“You phoned me because you thought you lost him to the trash can,” Mastermind pointed out. 

“Hey, I found him digging through the trash once.” Psyker tried thinking of name suggested, “How about Snow? Frosty?”

“Too generic,” Mastermind sighed. “How annoying.” 

He grinned, “Welcome to the joy and pain of having a pet! Congrats.” 

“I can already feel the pain,” Mastermind said with sarcasm, but there was no venom in his voice. He yawned, “It’s late, I’m going to sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.” 

With Mastermind retreating back to the guest room for the night, it left no reasons for Psyker to still be awake. He checked on the kids again to see them fast asleep before going back to his room. When he hit the covers, he passed out into a dreamless sleep. 

* * *

The next time he went to Mastermind’s house to pick up Psych, he was greeted by Arc, who was showing him the science project he and Psych worked on that afternoon. With Psych sprinting to the car despite warnings from Psyker not to, he scanned the house in search for Mastermind. After walking through the living room with Arc behind his trail, he soon found Mastermind with his knees on the floor with his head ducked under the coffee table.

“Sorry about being late, the interns messed up something and it took hours for me to untangle.” Psyker ran his hand through his roots with worn out eyes. He and Mastermind were past the stage of getting annoyed at each other for being a little late, both of them understanding the nature of their jobs, but he despised running late out of the need to feel in control.

Mastermind pulled his arm under the sofa, reaching out for something Psyker couldn’t see. It wasn’t under Psyker cleared his throat did he notice his presence and promptly stood up to face him with an awkward cough. 

“I didn’t hear you,” he apologized. “Did Psych already leave?”

“Yeah, he’s in the car.” Psyker said. “Did you lose something?” 

“I can’t find Apocalypse.” Mastermind groaned when Psyker gave him that weird look, the kind that questioned his sanity. It didn’t help that Arc was laughing when he said the name and added, “You know, the cat? Arc, go look for him in your room. He might be hiding in your closet again.” 

Arc was still giggling when he went down the hallway and made a right turn to where his room was before slamming the door shut. Mastermind pulled his hands down his face and rubbed his eyelids before pulling them away to see Psyker staring at him. 

“You named it Apocalypse?” 

“Arc named it,” Mastermind explained. Wasn’t that the name of a super villain from one the comic books Arc and Psych loved so much? He grumbled when Psyker started laughing at the name, “We call it Apo for short and HEY, your cat is named Doomsday.” 

Still cackling, Psyker rolled up his sleeves and grinned, “Doomsday is a great name, our cats’ names match!” 

Rolling his eyes, Mastermind said, “I wouldn’t know.” Right, Mastermind wasn’t as well verse with comic books as he was. Anything he knew about them were limited to whatever movies he saw in theaters with him or Arc. 

His attention snapped back when he heard a soft squeak coming from the bookshelf hugging the living room wall closest to the kitchen. He and Mastermind followed the noise to discover a small white ball of fluff sitting in the trashcan. It waved its paws in the air when Mastermind picked it up and gently scolded at it.

“Naughty kitty,” Mastermind placed a finger on its forehead, trying not to smile when it mewled. “I thought you wandered off where the birds could pick you up.” 

Psyker chuckled at its liveliness, “It looks healthy.” 

“Yes, a real trouble maker,” Mastermind feigned annoyance. “He’s a little brat.” 

“Now you an extra mouth to feed,” Psyker teased when Mastermind went to the kitchen to open a can of cat food. 

“Hey… thanks for the other day.” Mastermind said. “I know I said it for Arc, but I mean it for myself too. Having someone to talk to is nice.” 

Again? He wasn’t uncomfortable with Mastermind, not when he was always joking with him like he was just now, but it felt like something was stuck in his throat when Mastermind thanked him for what felt like the tenth time that month. The giddiness he experienced reminded him of his high school days, clouding his judgment about Mastermind’s last statement. 

“You don’t need to thank me for every little thing I say or do,” Psyker said. He didn’t mean to be rude, but he wasn’t sure how many more times he could take these thank yous ever so formally when he and Mastermind have known each other for nearly two years. It made talking to Mastermind awkward sometimes, although overtime, he found it cute. “Just say, ‘you’re awesome, Lusa.’” 

In deadpan expression, “You’re loathsome, Lusa.” 

He looked at Mastermind with a thumbs down and pulled down his lips into an exaggerated frown in attempt to make the man laugh. All he got from Mastermind with a twitch in his facial features before shaking his head with a small smile. He may have lost the conversation, but he won a smile. 

Apocalypse, too, mewls in approval from its spot in Mastermind’s arms. 


	3. Tree

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mastermind spends his first Christmas with Arc. Story takes place before Mastermind met Lunatic Psyker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

A Christmas tree sat in the corner of his room, barely standing up to Mastermind’s knee when he first found it in the clearance isle of last year’s sale. He was never one to make a big deal out of the holiday aside from buying himself sweets and listening to holiday music on the radio, but something compelled him to set up the tree this year rather than let it sit in the closet neglected like the year before.

Mastermind sat on the carpeted floor of his small one-bedroom apartment with his eyes glued to the textbook perched against the wall. Although winter break was just a week away, that didn’t stop his professors from assigning papers and expecting him to prepare for exams as well. Spread out around the graduate student were notebooks with his messy writing scribbled across with colorful sticky notes marked on the side with additional writing that only he understood.

Sitting next to him on a blanket was Arc, who was occupied with a couple of preschool Lego blocks within reach. The infant banged the blocks against each other and giggled when one of them tumbled over to where Mastermind was.

Mastermind looked up to see his son crawling after the block to grab it with his tiny hand before making noises to get his attention. He smiled when Arc showed him the block and handed it to him while babbling. Taking the block, Mastermind stacked it on top of the other block closest to them and let Arc place another block before they tumbled down from misalignment.

Arc giggled again and clapped his hands at the falling blocks and crawled after them again. Mastermind had a fond smile, but then remembered that he still had to work on his assignment. There was guilt when he pulled his head back into the books, but he still looked up every few minutes to check on Arc, who was playing on his blanket with a few other toys and his cat stuffed animal beside him.

The stuffed cat was supposed to be a Christmas gift, but Arc found it before Mastermind could hide it. He couldn’t bring himself to take the toy away from the infant when he saw Arc hugging the cat. It was a black cat with pink eyes and nose sewn up with whiskers poking out from its cheeks. The cat was never far away from its owner, so Mastermind panicked when he saw that the stuffed animal was sitting by itself. Where was Arc?

His heart hopped a few heartbeats when he looked around the small room he shared with Arc to see the child crawling to the Christmas tree that sat in the corner. How did he not realize Arc wandered off like that? Mastermind’s eyes widened when he spotted the infant standing up to get a better look at the tree.

Arc’s eyes shone at the sight of the golden star and the flickering lights from the tree. He stood up, moving one foot in front of the other, slowly alternating his feet and leaning slightly over in reach for the star that was placed too high for him to grab.

“Arc!” He called out to get the child’s attention.

Arc turned his head around to say something, but his legs started to wobble and lose his balance. Mastermind rushed over to catch Arc, but it was too late. The child hit his face first into the tree and fell over with his arms waving behind his back and cried.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” Mastermind picked him up and patted the crying child on the back with a soothing expression.

He checked Arc’s face to see if there were any scratches and was relieved to see that there were none. Mastermind looked from behind to see when Arc hiccupped and pointed at the cat stuffed animal lying on the blanket. He held Arc in his arms while walking over to fetch the toy and asked, “You want kitty?” 

“Kitty,” Arc had his arms out for the toy when Mastermind handed it over. He hugged the cat tightly and rested his head on Mastermind’s shoulder while carried back to where he was before.

Mastermind grabbed a few cushions on the floor and placed Arc back on the blanket with a few other toys to keep him entertained. When Mastermind went back to his studies, he saw his son asleep with his head on the cushions and holding onto the cat with a smile. 


	4. Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It started with Time’s black nails. Time became friends with Arc as he wondered when his dad would come home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted on tumblr.

The lights were off when Time turned the doorknob with one hand and entered the unlocked classroom. With the flip of a switch, light flooded the empty room and blinded him for a moment before he blinked to adjust his eyes. He threw his backpack on his desk near the back, where he could avoid the teacher’s judgmental sight and went to write the date and period on the whiteboard with a purple marker he always brought with him. 

He couldn’t pretend to be the student that said they loved school, it sounded too nerdy and uncool. It was hard to place his thoughts on what school was aside from what it was supposed to be: a place to go to everyday because it was his job and there was nowhere else for him, like it was Dad’s job to go to work and come home if he remembered. Not too different from what he did every day. 

Even though the optometrist warned not to, Time rubbed the patch covering his left eye. It was hard not to. They said it was temporary and that eye needed rest, but he felt ridiculous wearing it when it made him look like an anime character. He paused on that thought with amusement. Being an anime character sounded easier than going to middle school. They spent more time saving the world than studying or worrying about what other kids said about each other. 

The clock’s big hand pointed to the number five when the door slammed open, hitting the wall adjacent to it with a thud. He jolted from where he stood, still at the board and gazing at the schedule written from last week. Standing at the door wasn’t the teacher, but a student. They walked to where Time was and stared at his writing with disapproval. 

“Morning,” Time greeted them. 

“So you’re the one writing on the board,” they mumbled, grimacing like there was something on his face. “Did you finish last weekend’s homework?”

“A little,” Time lied. Of course he finished it, and the reading too. “You’re early today.” He gestured his hand over to the clock.

They grabbed his arm and raised it to reveal black nails painted on all five digits, “Hey, Halloween’s over.”

Time’s mind froze, wide eyed that this was happening. He threw his arm the opposite direction, ripping it away from them with shame and rage floating through his mind. So what if he thought black nails were cool after watching his cousin paint her nails before asking if he wanted to learn. He thought black nails would be better than the red nail polish his cousin wanted to apply on him. 

“You’re weird,” they commented while Time struggled to conjure something to say. He was never one to really talk back and he didn’t want to deal with this person either. 

Time shrunk away from their words and sank back his seat with dread. He should have spoken up when he had the chance, but something stopped him from even moving his lips. The student was already walking away and talking to someone else in the classroom, no point in trying. It would make him sound like he’s trying too hard to sound tough. 

“Are you okay?”

Time turned to see his neighbor look at him with concern, fluffy jacket ruffled as he slipped it off his back to reveal a boy with white hair. Huh…Arc was early today, an unusual gesture when he was almost always late to homeroom. 

“It’s nothing,” Time shook his head, although he glanced at his nails again. They were a little off and he could have done a better job with the coating, but he thought they were good for the first time. 

“Did you paint your nails black?” Arc asked. Oh no, not him too… “Cool!”

Was this guy stupid? Time checked his face if he was joking, but saw the other smiling with that dumb fringe flopped over one side of his face. Arc usually talked to other people around them, why him today? He did well on tests, so it couldn’t be to copy off him. 

“Um…sure,” was all Time could muster, uncomfortable of being stared at. They sat next to each other in three periods, why was this awkward?

“Can you show me how to do that?” Arc asked, “Wanna hang out sometime?”

“For what?” That came out more blunt than intended. Time mumbled a sorry, but Arc wasn’t fazed and laughed. 

“I dunno,” he shrugged. “The mall? The arcade?”

There was an arcade close to his house, but he never went inside before. It was always dark when he peeked inside with neon lights flashing from the machines with teenagers shrieking. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to go in. 

“Don’t we have a test coming up?” Time asked.

“Gross,” Arc said with no sign of worry about said test. 

What was he doing saying no to someone wanting to hang out with him? Test or not, he had more than enough time to study for it. Arc was annoying and talked a lot in class, but never intentionally bothered him or tried being snarky to him, although the occasional snide comments he made in class were worth a chuckle. 

“Okay, but it’s Friday.” Arc waved his hand, “Who studies on Fridays?”

Heat traveled up Time’s ears as he stopped himself from blurting out embarrassing things that could only mess him up further. Okay, so maybe he had too much time, but did Arc have to make it sound stupid? Pushing aside his pride from telling Arc to fuck off, Time rubbed his face to see that it was still hot. He needed to stop overreacting to stuff like this before turning permanently red.

Time said. “What’s so special about this arcade that I can’t do the same at home?”

“One, it has the newest, coolest, games, like that shooting game that lets you fight as a robot. Two, awesome prizes. They’re going to put up that new console when it comes out and there’s even a hoverboard! Glide to class in style and never being late to class again.” Arc demonstrated himself balancing on his seat with a stupid grin. “And three, they have the best fries.” 

“I think you need that hoverboard more than me,” Time snorted. “The Switch isn’t coming out for another year and what game are you even going to get with that?”

“What I’m trying to say here is, you’re missing out.” 

Time asked, “You’re not going to make me do stupid dumb like karaoke, are you?”

“What? No!” Arc laughed, “But if you want…”

Time placed his hand in front of Arc to shut up, “Tell me about those games.” 

* * *

Arc had a jacket too big for his size thrown over his shoulders and his shoes half way done when Time caught up later that day. When they stepped inside, bright lights flickered from giant screens coming from different directions and packed with people. 

The ceiling was decorated like the night sky with dim lights, packed with arcade games that would make any teen burn away their week’s saving on the whim. Shooting games, claw machines, rhythm games, and many untranslated games imported from a foreign country flashed in blinding colors, but that made Time as ecstatic as Arc, who was beaming. 

“You haven’t been here, right?” Arc led him through the rows of machines. “I have enough for some games, so we can use my card. I almost have enough tickets for the big prize.”

Oh, he wanted him to help earn tickets. Time thought it made sense, seemed fair since this was Arc’s money they were using.

“I’ve spent months trying to win this and Psych’s been helping me too,” Arc said as he led him through the side of the arcade that led to a room filled with prizes hanging off shelves and set behind glass cases. Tags hung over all of them with big numbers to indicate the tickets required to trade for them. 

There were necklaces, stickers, plastic figurines on the lower shelves, stuff Time assumed to be the ones requiring less tickets. On the higher shelves were stuffed animals of standard size, star shaped lamps, even game consoles. Standing in the back was a black rabbit plush with pink beaded eyes, the size of a small child and easily taking up half of his bed if he was to measure it.

“What are you looking at?” Arc asked when he caught Time staring at the plush.

Time averted his eyes, careful not to look at Arc either, “So what’s the prize?” He scanned the shelves for what he thought Arc would have his eyes fixed on. What could Arc want that costed so much?

“There’s a steel metal frame bike back there,” Arc pointed to the one sitting behind the counter, “It can do tricks and it’s supposed to be fast.”

“Neat,” Time leaned over to see the black handlebar sticking out. It had silver linings too and the cushion seat didn’t look uncomfortable, better than the ones used for kid bikes. It was no surprise that it was one of the more expensive prizes. “You really think we can win enough for it?” 

“If we play enough, yeah.” Arc waved his card around and flashed a grin, “Don’t bother with the claw machines. The real money comes from the shooters.” 

“You mean that new game they just released?”

Giant robots, feminine looking men, and girls in skimpy outfits holding laser guns several times their size seemed to be the aesthetic when Time saw the posters. It didn’t take long to find the machine. It was the newest one with polished screens and it had a line. A pink haired girl with an energetic voice greeted them when they swipe Arc’s card to begin. It took another few minutes for them to get past the character selection page - no customizing, but plenty of characters pick and choose. 

“We get two guns?” Time almost dropped his when he discovered it was two guns held together by a magnetic force. He glanced over his shoulder to mirror Arc, who separated the two and pointed at the screen to select the ready button. It was a shooting game, couldn’t be too complicated. 

There wasn’t much time for talk because the game threw them head first into a city empty of civilians and filled with robots. The cheery voice from the title screen was back and throwing them orders in a language neither could understand. All Time could do was use the icons and green arrows for guidance as he and Arc attempted to follow the game’s cue to fulfill its demands. 

“Got it!” Arc cheered when he shot down a few robots and slammed the two guns together for a bigger shot, “Did you see that?” 

Time looked over to see a cleared screen of enemies fading into the background before another wave showed up. He gasped in shock when he turned back to see his character was losing too much health and slapped his finger into the trigger to clear his own screen. 

“Is that it?” Time frowned when there was a delay on both of their screens. How many kills did Arc have? 

There was a loud sound coming from their screens when a bigger robot crashed in with a thud, only allowing giving Time a couple of seconds to move his character to narrowly avoid getting hit before shooting at it. He saw Arc follow suit, but he was less than lucky and had half of his health points lost. After they finished off the final boss, a smaller screen with red numbers popped out to display their scores, comparing their number of kills and health lost.

It was a tie. 

Time wiped his brow, still in awe when he looked away from the screen. His eyes felt strange looking into darkness again after the rainbow flood his vision. He had to grasp the head of his seat when he got off to avoid falling over. They had to play that again. 

“Look at how much we won,” Arc ripped out a line of tickets for show. “Seven tickets each, that’s fourteen.”

Time grabbed his tickets from Arc with a content expression, “How many tickets did you say you needed?”

As they jumped to the next machine, Time found himself lost in the midst of it all. There was no feeling of rush when they ran through the rhythm games or when Arc tried to pull something from the claw machine with no success. It wasn’t until he checked his phone did he realize how much time has passed. 

“I should have been home an hour ago,” Time groaned, “Dad won’t be happy.” 

“I can’t come over?” Arc sounded guilty. “We can study if you want, I have my stuff.”

“I guess you can,” Time said.

Well…if they were studying, maybe Dad would let it slip when it’s related to school. Time prayed that his dad wouldn’t mind having someone over when he didn’t warn him ahead of time. He texted him anyway when they left the arcade to be safe, but not before he stole a glance from the black rabbit at the prize shop. Maybe he could come back alone next time. 

* * *

They were greeted by an empty house when they stepped into Time’s house with their backpacks on the floor. It was well furnished with a black sofa pushed against lavender painted walls and a chair to the side with a coffee table in the middle to match with the furniture. Books cluttered the bookshelves and the white carpet didn’t look past a day of its installment. The only signs of someone living in the house was a black cat using the scratch post in the corner when it heard its owner and started meowing. Ah…Paranoia was hungry. 

After feeding the cat and fixing up a quick after school snack of cheese and crackers, they sat on the living room floor with their legs crossed and their backpacks on the opposite side of them. Textbooks and notes spread out with pens and papers scattered on the coffee table. 

“Have you ever tried painting your nails other colors?” Arc asked as he flipped over to skim over the review questions at the end of the chapter, pressing his finger into temple in concentration. 

“Black is a better color,” Time said without second thought, never mind that he knew Arc was trying to change topics to avoid studying his least favorite subject. He thought it was funny watching his friend make a face at the history book cover. “What answer did you get for the last question?”

“A person living under a king or dictator,” Arc checked his book to see if he was right and sighed. “Yeah, black is awesome, but what if you painted it blue or green? Or rainbow?” He asked with a mischievous gleam in his eyes. 

“No one is going to take me seriously,” Time complained. “How about I add sparkles to your nails and make it rainbow.” 

“Ooh, scary.” The other laughed at his threat, “You don’t know how to do that.” 

He painted his nails with one color before, but six? Time wasn’t sure if he had enough faith in his nail painting skills when he had only done it a few times, although painting Arc’s nails in bright neon colors wasn’t a bad idea. 

“I can always watch videos to learn how,” Time grinned.

Arc turned to make a comeback, but his expression faltered when the door opened. 

Walking into the living room was a man somewhere in his thirties, wearing a black turtleneck with a white labcoat in his arms. His face was as pale as Time’s when Esper saw the eleven year olds sitting on the floor.

“D-dad, you’re home early,” Time squeaked. There weren’t any texts from him mentioning coming home today, did something happen? 

“Lab closed early today because the boss’s kid got sick,” Esper said. “Did I interrupt something?”

“No, we’re almost done.” Time shook his head, still getting over that his dad was home and it wasn’t a weekend. The next holiday wouldn’t be for another month or so and Esper wasn’t sick. 

Esper nodded at Arc, “I’m Time’s father. And you are…” 

“Arc, sorry for intruding,” Arc said with pink cheeks. 

“You’re welcome to come here if Time invites you,” Esper said, but he looked like he would rather be somewhere else. He glanced at Arc’s features with an unreadable expression, eye moving over to scrutinize Time. 

Time wished he yelled at Arc to stay a little bit longer because when he left, the house was silent again. He knew Esper was going to bombard him with questions because it has been years since he last invited someone his age to come over like this. The kitchen smelled of Esper’s amazing cooking, but it didn’t make up for the awkwardness between father and son. 

“I bought you new nail polish,” Esper said when they were at the table. “It’s the brand you wanted.” 

Time smiled in appreciation that Esper remembered, even if he only said it once or twice when he ran out of black nail polish. 

“So, where is that from?” Esper saw a new addition hanging off his backpack. It was a keychain of a monster from one of those handheld games, a turtle with a plant sprouting from its back. “I don’t remember buying that.” 

“Arc gave it to me,” Time said. In the end, there wasn’t enough tickets for the bike, but impulse fell over them and they agreed to get keychains from the prize shop. He had a turtle and Arc got the penguin. There was a third one, a monkey, but Arc took it and said he thought it was funny looking. As long as it went under one hundred tickets, no harm. “We went to the arcade and won them. We studied too, I’ll clean up-”

“We can clean up later,” Esper said, uncomfortable when Time gave him that wide eyed look at the word ‘we’. “Um… work gave me vacation next month and Christmas is coming up. We’ll have a few free weeks and plane tickets will be gone quick. Is there anywhere you want to go?” 

Last year, they went to the tropical islands and he got to skip a few days of school early with Esper telling the teachers he was sick. The water was warm and clear unlike the cloudy river not too far from their house and the sand was as fine as silk. He liked the idea of going somewhere where work couldn’t call Esper away from him, but then he thought about Arc, who didn’t mention about going away for Christmas. If he went away, that meant being away from home and by the time they get back, he would have to worry about school again. 

“We don’t have to go anywhere,” Time stared at his feet, away from Esper’s surprised expression. “Can we spend Christmas at home this year? And drink hot chocolate like we did with M-, the other year?” 

Esper’s hot chocolate wasn’t the premade ones that came in packets from the supermarket, but homemade from years of experimenting and the cookies that came along with it always had the right amount of sugar. He used to let Time decorate them with buttercream frosting from a recipe they found online that no longer existed. With ugly sweaters and blanket draped, it was almost easy to forget it was snowing outside. 

The man turned off the stove and went to grab two plates for them, not answering immediately with a stiff expression on his face while calculating a proper response. When he came back with food, he placed them at the table, biting his cheek with his eyes blinking. 

“You want to stay home?” Esper handed the utensils from the drawer to Time for him to set up the table. “If that’s what you want…”

The man was startled when Time pulled him into a tight hug, arms wrapped around his thin waist with his head against his chest. Esper gave him awkward pats on the head, but didn’t wriggle out of the embrace and let Time stay there. 

Esper relaxed when they separated from the hug. Today’s dinner was different for many reasons. For Time, it was sitting at a table with Esper instead of coming home to leftovers with a text from him that he was going to be late again. For Esper, it was harder to tell, but Time thought it was because he was having a good day to be away from work. Even though the holidays were still a month away, he wished for November to pass by faster so he could get to spending time with Esper and hanging out with Arc. 

After he helped washed the dishes and brought his stuff back to his room. Time said nothing when he joined Esper in the living room to clear his books and learning material, but he couldn’t help but wonder if he should have said something. Perhaps he was wrong in thinking spending time with him was all it took to make Esper happy. 


End file.
